Requesting MOO Tips, Tidbits, Comments, Advice

Triathlon Forum
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Hey MOO Vets!

Any general tips, tidbits, or comments on MOO logistics, places to eat, things to be aware of, etc?

This is my first MOO (2nd IM). Flying in Wed afternoon, staying at the Clarion Suites, and leaving Monday at 3:30. M35-39 – ETA 11hrs. I will be prepared for the potential weather issues as in the past. I have been watching the Simply Stu and reading the threads.

A few questions I have -

  •     Any suggestions on the helix or how to handle MOO’s transitions? I have seen it in the videos and understand transition is long.  

  •     Good places to eat (preferably that are unique to MOO)? 

  •     Best time/day to drive the bike course?  

  •     Special areas to pay extra close attention to when driving (in a car) the bike course? 

  •     Best section of the course to pee off the bike? 

  •     Is the swim area open all day during the week of MOO?  

  •     Airport logistic suggestions?  

  •     Suggestions for spectators?  

  •     Parking suggestions?

Any and all advice appreciated!

Thank you.

2

Hoover - I’ve done IMWI 3X and ridden the course about umpteen times, so I’ll take a whack at answering your questions…

The helix & transitions - the helix is no big thing. You’ll run up the east side coming out of the swim - let the wetsuit strippers at the bottom do their thing and take ‘er easy up the corkscrew. It’ll be lined with people and it’s a real rush, so enjoy it. Transition is inside the Terrace and will be staffed by some of the best volunteers around. On the way out, you’ll have to run your bike to the west end of the upper deck before you can saddle up - then, roll EZ down the other helix - too many yahoos try to get up to speed on the helix which is stupid and dangerous - it’s the first 200 meters of an ironman for pete’s sake. T2 is back inside the Terrace in the same room. The helix is no big thing at the end of the bike - you can sit n’ spin up it pretty easily. You’ll ride about 100 meters across the flat to the dismount line where the volunteers will take your bike and direct you to transition inside.

Restaurants - tons to choose from, and all are within walking distance from the Capitol square.

Course recon - don’t know about driving it, as I haven’t. If you’ve never seen it in person, just remember that it’s much harder on a bike than in a car (not to freak you out or anything). The most dangerous spot is the left hand turn at the bottom of Timber Lane. Pretty easy to exceed 45 mph there and it’s a tight turn so mind your brakes. The other spot to go EZ is the top of Garfoot Rd. - twisty and fast - roads are open, so stay right of center through the blind corners. The Garfoot descent is an excellent place for a nature break if you can do it in motion - you gotta be going EZ anyway, so why not. If you prefer to stop and dismount, there’s a nice wooded flat section at the bottom of Garfoot that’s a likely spot.

The swim - Gatorade hosts an open swim on the course every a.m., although I’m not sure if it starts Wed. or Thurs. Gear check and Gatorade available - don’t miss it, as it’ll give you an outlet for all that energy and get you ready for breakfast.

Can’t comment on airport logistics, as I’m in N. IL so I’ll be driving up Thursday.

For spectators - the Terrace for the swim. After that, they can catch a free shuttle out to Verona on the bike course - they’ll have a town festival going on in the park and the course comes through town 2X. After that, catch the shuttle back to Madison and hang around the Capitol square - lots of diversions within a short walk, and race central for the rest of the day. On the north side, opposite the Terrace is State St. - part of the run course and lined with cool restaurants/shops.

Can’t help with parking…sorry 'bout that.

As far as tips, the biggest one I can offer is this: pace yourself on the bike. Seems that you haven’t had an opportunity to ride the course yet. It’s tough. Lots of rollers and false flats and not much opportunity to get in the aeros and get in a groove. Better to err on the side of caution, especially on the first loop. Save a little for the trip back to town also, as there’s a couple of little climbs that can hurt if you’ve ridden too hard.

Hope the above is some help. Safe travels, and perhaps I’ll see ya in a few weeks.

Mike

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Here are some random thoughts, in no particular order. Even though you’re probably reasonably quick with an 11 hour goal, consider walking the helix, or at least a light jog, a lot of people are hustling up it and there’s no need to spike your HR that early in the race. Expect your transition to take a long time, 8 minutes is not uncommon, there’s easily over a half mile of running through transition, on top of everything else. Don’t put your shoes on until you get the bike, unless you fasten them ahead of time, when you see the parking structure and how the athletes are routed, this will become very clear to you. Since you’ll have time, walk through the whole transition process so you know what to expect. If you’re a sub-1 hour swimmer, you don’t need any advice, but if you’re higher than that, consider starting closer to shore, but along the front line. Swim a straight line to the far buoy. The course is a rectangle with the short sides ~.08 miles each, meaning the other lengths are closer to .5 miles each. If you line up 100 yards off the corner of the rectangle, you only swim an extra 6 yards over the half mile, but it will be the calmest swimming of the race. Once you reach the first turn, prepare for chaos. I think the course is set up by Thursday. Make sure you pick up your packet early on Thursday so you can avoid the crowds.

You can preview the bike course here before you fly in so you can understand what you might want to check out. If you have a car and ample time, drive the whole thing. Don’t drive to fast as there are a lot of twists and turns, while you are going up and down. As far as peeing while on the bike, there are plenty of places to make impromptu stops, at least on half of the course you can almost pull over if you’re discreet enough.
http://www.simplystu.com/…?post_category=Video

On the run, it’s adviseable to walk the hills around miles 5 and 6. A lot of pro’s walk those hills, I was dumb enough to try running them the first loop.

As far as parking for spectators, there are a few parking garages within a few blocks of the capitol. Have fun, good luck!

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Best place to park is in the parking lot that’s just a block or so from Run Out–just up the road where you exit the transition area. We parked there the night before and then just took a cab to the race in the morning (we arranged it with our hotel). when the race is over, you walk one block and you’re good to go. You could try to paRK there in the morning but you’re in for more stress and there is a very good chance you won’t get a spot…

rc

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Awesome replies guys. Thanks so much. Great info!

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Would somebody pl. explain IMMOO vs IMWI? where MOO came from? Cows on the course?

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Ride the course sometime and smell the air, then you will understand.

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“Come smell our dairy air!”
.

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go to Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning around the Capitol!

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by the way . . .free outdoor show by the Flaming Lips and others at the Alliance Center - Willow Island on Satruday 9/8 from 2pm-10pm. Willow Island is about 1/2 mile north of the Clarion Hotel. - http://www.madison.com/tct/blogs/thebubbler/203409

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I’ve done 3 IM-Moo’s…and my advice…watch out for the nasty bump about 700 meters into the bike on John Nolan drive. Just before a small bridge there is a hic-up in the road that seems to catapult any loose equipment (cO2, waterbottles, x-labs, spare tires, repair kits, bento boxes, Gu bottles, you name it). So my tip of the day…batten down the hatches…and look out for that first bump on John Nolan. It seems like every year the gear is all over the road. It’s dangerous…but almost comical.

12

That SimplyStu video is awesome. Thanks for sharing that.

Watching the video really calmed my nerves and pretty much settled any internal dispute on not riding a disc due to technical turns.

The course, at least from the video really doesn’t look all that hilly. It’s actually seems like a fun course and a fairly fast one at that. The rollers don’t seem that steeop and all and really not that long.

Does anyone know the total elevation gain of the course. Couldn’t be more then 6,000 feet

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It’s not the elevation gain (I have heard/seen in the 5000-7000 range) it’s the constent up and down. Yes it’s a fun course and you can make up some good time if your ride the rollers correctly.

To the OP - Having ridden the course quite a few times and racing it last year - it is a tough - but fair course. You should only need to tap the brakes a few times - the first is the right hand turn off Highway G onto Highway 92. You will be flying here and need to shift to an easy gear before the turn because it has a nasty little climb right after the turn. The second is on the long down hill on Garfoot and the third is the left hand turn at the bottom on Timber Ln. Properly geared you should not have to stand on any hill except for Midtown (on loop 1)…loop 2…any hill seems hard.

The “big 3” that everyone always talks about (Old Sauk, Timber LN and Midtown) is not that bad. The only of these hills that can be considered a grinder is Midtown.

IMO the longish climb up to Mount Horeb, Witte Road (left turn just off “S”) and the Midtown are the worst parts of the course.

Take your bike with you and ride the Garfoot section after W. Mineral Point Rd. - It is a nice downhill that you should be able to desend fast…but it has a couple of nasty twist at 40mph that you may not want to do for the first time race day.

Don’t forget the last few miles along Walen road…they can be pretty tough.

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-IMO the longish climb up to Mount Horeb, Witte Road (left turn just off “S”) and the Midtown are the worst parts of the course.

Don’t forget the last few miles along Walen road…they can be pretty tough.
I have ridden course numerous times (and admittedly have not raced it yet) and would agree wholeheartedly with these two points. People seem to forget about these areas because they don’t show a huge spike on the elevation map. The ride into Mt. Horeb can be brutal IMO. Whalen Road has several tough hills, which are probably easily forgotten because everyone is so glad to be making the trek back to the city and they are so close to T2.

15

Thanks again guys. I am looking at the directions at driving the course - man, tons of turns. I hope this is easy to figure out in the car. I am trying to program it into a TomTom GPS for the car but not sure if I can figure it out…Is the course marked enough that I can drive it only with the directions from the link below?

http://www.ironmanwisconsin.com/course.php

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The course is marked and you should be able to figure it out in a car. On the bike, don’t miss the turn on Garfoot off Mineral Road. It sucks climbing back up a hill when you know you are so close to that great descent.

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Don’t underestimate that bike course.

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Yeah, it’s a lot of turns, it’s really easy if you follow the print directions from the IM site and watch the road signs. I rode the entire course yesterday (2 loops), the only road that didn’t have a sign on it at the turn was the left hand turn onto Midtown Road.

It was really windy out there yesterday morning. If you are a light rider and there is wind I would think twice about riding a disc.

While on my way out to Verona on Syene road, I had a local in a pickup truck dump his soft drink on me and yell at me to “get the f*** off the road”…made me feel right at home.

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Appreciate it. Yeah I won’t underestimate. I am just glad it looks like terrain I am very familiar with living in Missouri. We get a lot of people who come from mountainious areas who highly underestimate the course and terrain around here and don’t realize how the rollers and false flats can tear you apart. I think it one of those course those that if you ride it right it can be fairly fast.

20

This will only apply if it is raining or the roads are wet. Last year it rained all day and the roads were wet on just about the entire course. I’m not sure of the road name, but it is at the end of the loop in Verona when you turn right and go past the high school and aid station. There was a wide white line in the road right before the intersection that was VERY slick. Not usually a huge deal, but most people were on the brakes going around the corner. My bike almost got away from me on the first loop, but I paid extra attention to it on the second.

From what I understand talking to friends/family that were spectating, there were quite a few people that went down on that corner. Oh yea, have a great race!